Best Desktop External Hard Drives Review

Updated on October 16, 2012

This article aims to review the best desktop external hard drives and data storage currently available on the market. Are you looking for a reliable, durable, fast and safe External Hard Drive? Don't know which one to choose from the myriad of options? Are they all the same? This review gives you a thorough and detailed overview of the best hard drives which are available at affordable prices.

Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

The Seagate Expansion External Hard Drive offers a powerful way to keep all your photos, videos and files safe with an easy to use solution. The hard drive is easy to install and fairly straightforward by simply plugging in the power supply and USB cable included in the pack. The Expansion Hard Drive is automatically recognized by Windows which means you won't need to go through the agony of having to install a software.

Coming in capacities ranging from 500GB up to the 3TB model, it allows the user to store enough data comparable to 3000 hours of video, 960000 pictures and up to 50000 hours of music.

Seagate Expansion

Great Price, Great Speed, Great Reliability

Bought for a 2012 MacBook Pro Retina. Reformatted for Mac (MacExtended). For the price this is one of the best drives you can get. Its USB 3.0 so its super fast (my first transfer was 162GB and did it in 14 minutes). It also has a more rugged case making it pretty durable.

Good drive from Amazon

I have read about the heat problems with this unit. I think they must have changed the design because it runs as cool as any hard drive I have. Also it came with a separate external power supply, it is not dependent on the USB3 connection. I use this as a back-up device for my video files, which are quite large.

Western Digital Elements USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

This stylish and elegant external hard drive is very reminiscent of a book. In fact it’s very practical as it doesn’t take more space than a normal paperback book. It features a plug-and-play system whereby you just connect the power and plug it in to a USB port letting you add storage to the computer instantly.

The Western Digital Elements External Hard Drive features:

Easy to use plug-and-play system to start transferring data to the drive

A simple USB 2.0 interface connection which is compatible with multiple computers

Smart and energy efficient - Turns itself on and off with your computer

Turns on and off with the computer and goes in idle mode when not used

A sleek body which is pleasing to the eye

1-year limited warranty

The Elements Desktop External Hard Drive is compatible with operating systems such as the Mac OS X Tiger or Leopard, Windows Vista/XP and Windows 7.

This drive is great for those who want a large capacity drive. It is very reliable, easy to use, fast as well as durable and doesn’t heat up. It also comes cheaper than most other hard drives.

Western Digital

Great Drive for the MoneyI got this drive primarily to run regular back-ups of my Mac via Time Capsule (Snow Leopard OS). The external hard drive I had previously wasn't large enough any longer (250 gig). The Western Digital drive set up quickly and easily. No problems whatsoever. It's also very quiet so I never really know it's on. I got it at a great price through amazon. It's excellent in every way.

Trusting my data to Western DigitalI have been using WD drives since 1994, and still have a working 540mg Western Digital HD. Have purchased many more western digital caviar internal drives since and never had problems. Good product with solid support. I would highly recommend this external model drive...simple to use and very slick looking. A lot of space for your backups (I image my hard drives and save the entire image, not just copy files) and this works great. The deal with external drives is not the speed of access read/write, it's the stability and reliability of the drive inside. You don't need top specs for a backup drive.

Iomega Prestige USB 3.0 External Hard Drive

The new Iomega Prestige External Hard Drive is an easy to use and affordable solution. It provides an easy way to store your photos, video, music and to protect your computer files. It is also more energy efficient compared to other models. Coming in capacities of 1TB, 2TB and 3TB, the Iomega Prestige offers storage and protection for all types of data.

The new Iomega Prestige External Hard Drive features:

Stylish grey case which is not only good looking but works in order to dissipate heat which allows the drive to run cooler hence quieter as well.

Backup Software available through download allowing simple backup of your files to keep your data safe. An online backup is also included, providing 2GB of storage.

USB 3.0 drives are backward compatible to USB 2.0

It is compatible with both PC’s (Windows 2000 Pentium 2 or higher) and Mac’s (OS X 10.3 or above);

It runs at a fast 7200 RPM

3-year limited warranty

The Iomega Prestige is a very enjoyable software. It runs super quiet and even if you leave it on for hours at a time it will only get slightly warm. It is definitely a really cool stand and most importantly has a power switch.

Iomega Prestige

Stylish and functionalThis is a beautiful drive. Very quiet. Need to run software to use hardware encryption. Only flaw is that the usb cable is proprietary and only 3 ft long.

You can't go wrong with this oneI needed a Terabyte drive to store all the movies that I was downloading. I got the Iomega last year and it turned out to be just what I was looking for. No issues at all; it has taken a few bumps and it keeps on ticking. So go for it. I will update this comment if and when it does fail.

The above list gives you the most recent, best performing and affordable Desktop External Hard Drives currently available for computers. This article is updated regularly whenever a new external hard drive is launched.

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Comments 5 comments

Sharon Douglas 5 years ago from GA, United States

Excellent article on external hard drives.

Thanks

Best External Hard Drives 6 years ago

Great article, and one I really needed,as I've been looking for a portable external hard drive, so thanks for your recommendations. This will help me in my decision making.

Thor 7 years ago

Hi,

Oh boy - "I needed that" - tomorrow I'm in for a trip to get a hard drive, all info is welcome.

Tnx!

I hope this next drive will be a success...

Thor

Jen's Solitude 7 years ago from Delaware

Great review and thanks for the first hand experience.

~Jen

compare the cost of living in UK 7 years ago

The Western Digital My Book Essential External Hard Drive is very exciting and looker GR8, I W O Now!